A bit of this, that AND whatever comes into my mind for better or worse, harnessed by penguin power and excess energy uncontrolled due to a love of a wee bit of craic! (Irish fun) Copyright by Pat Flynn Naughton Alvarez/Patabit Enterprises

Friday, December 2, 2011

Between Bread

Between
Bread

The
sandwich has a long and interesting history.A Rabbi during the first century B.C., Hillel, the Elder, is credited
with the first recorded mention of this food.The simple meal was made with two pieces of matzah and filled with
fruit, nuts, wine and herbs.It is part
of the early tradition of Passover and the Seder.

From the
dark ages until the Renaissance, bread was used to sop up juices from
meat.Food got from the table to the
diner’s mouth without soaking hands and clothing with gravy.Thick slices of bread, called trenchers, were
used as plates.

The fork surfaced
in the Middle East about 1070 and had only two large tines.Food slipped between the spaces.The early utensil wasn’t in wide use.It evolved, surfacing in Italy, moved to France
and slowly spread throughout Europe.

By the late
1600s, it was deemed bad manners to lift food with your fingers, at least among
wealthy groups.In the 1800’s,
multi-tined forks were developed in England and Germany and introduced to
America.The sandwich faded from view,
especially amongst the aristocracy.

John
Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, lived in England.He is commonly remembered as the inventor of
what we know as the sandwich. Historians
say he revived interest in the sandwich, which predated him.He was a notorious gambler and well traveled.

During the mid 1700’s, he travelled to
Mediterranean countries such as Greece and to Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii.People of those times ate grilled pita breads
stuffed with various staples.Some say
he remembered this and modeled the sandwich after this early finger food.Common folklore says he told his cook to make
him a convenient chow to sustain him during a long night of cards.He was given a slice of beef between two
slabs of bread.It must have been a dry snack.The year was 1762.Supposedly, other gamblers cried out, “I want
what Sandwich had”.

The cuisine
didn’t become immediately common in the USA.Americans weren’t going to copy British grub.We distinguished our culture as uniquely our
own, even the daily sustenance of life.

Elizabeth
Leslie formally introduced the sandwich in a cookbook she wrote in 1840. It included a recipe for a ham sandwich proposing
it to be a proper food to eat at the table.In the 1900’s, bakeries began to make thin sliced bread and a
convenience food became part of our culture.

The most
popular sandwich here is ham, whereas in England it was and is beef.There are regional variations of the sandwich
around the world with preferences for fillings often related to availability,
taste and familiarity.

In Ireland,
I was surprised to find a salad sandwich.It is simply lettuce and tomato with maybe sharp cheddar, sliced carrot,
cucumber, boiled halved egg, and/or apple that is spiced up with a bit of dressing
like mustard, chutney or mayonnaise.Sandwiches
in Spain typically have only meat, tuna, chorizo, cheese or omelet between two
slices of bread, with no lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, onions or pickles.A little oil may be rubbed on one side of the
bread.

Nowadays Americans
enjoy pita pockets, extra thin low calorie bread and frozen sandwiches to tote
to lunch or keep on hand at home.There
are gourmet and specialty sandwiches, half sandwich and soup or salad specials
and sandwiches named after famous people.

Though I
love some of the fancied up kinds, my favorite has to be the old fashioned grilled
cheese with tomato on sourdough, with plain old fried egg being a close
second.Something’s don’t change
much.However, the sandwich sure has
come a long way from its basic, utilitarian origins.

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